Exile in Eriador
by Rachel Hawkins
Summary: When Kili learns that Tauriel has been banished from Mirkwood, he sets out on an epic quest across Middle Earth to find her and bring her home. AU, post-BoFA.


_Author's Note: This is an AU in which Kili, Fili, and Thorin all survive the Battle of Five Armies._

Kili trudged toward the throne room of Erebor. A particularly vigorous weapons practice session had caused him to lose track of time, and now he was quite late. A meeting of elves and dwarves, and he had forgotten. Thorin was not going to be pleased.

The heavy doors swung open as he approached them, and half a dozen elves emerged. He didn't recognize any of them, but as they passed him in the hallway, one of them stopped and looked at him with narrowed eyes. "You're him," the elf said.

Kili frowned. "What does that mean?"

The elf leaned down, inexplicably angry. "You are the reason she left in the first place, and because of you, she is no longer allowed to return."

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Kili said, though a pit was forming in his stomach. There was only one person _she_ could refer to when talking about wood-elves.

"Tauriel was the captain of King Thranduil's guard until she defied him and left Mirkwood to save _you_. Now she has been banished from her home, and those who loved her may never see her again," the angry elf went on. He would have said more had one of his comrades not pulled him away. Kili stood frozen in place as the elves left the hall. After a moment he remembered to breathe again.

Tauriel had been banished from Mirkwood for saving his life?

He turned away from the throne room and walked away, his thoughts whirling. In the three years that had passed since the dragon Smaug had been killed and the Orc armies defeated, many things had changed. The dwarves had reclaimed Erebor, and many of their kin had traveled from other lands to rejoin them. With Thorin as their king, they had all worked to rebuild their old kingdom. There was trade with the Lake-men, though the dwarves' relations with Thranduil and the elves were still much troubled. The meeting today had been an attempt to thaw the ill will, but if his confrontation with the elf was anything to go by, it had not been successful.

An hour and a tense conversation with Thorin later, he headed for the main gate, loaded with all of the provisions he thought he would need for the journey he intended to undertake.

"You look as though you're about to do something foolish."

Kili stopped and took a breath before he turned to face his brother. He had been close to his Fili all his life, and the fact that both of them had come dangerously close to death during the battle to reclaim Erebor had brought them closer still. There was only one part of his life that he didn't share with Fili, one part of his memory that was his alone.

Tauriel, the elvish warrior who had saved his life and taken over his dreams. He tried not to think of her too often, because several years of distance told him his chance had slipped away, but she had a way of creeping back into his mind when he least suspected it.

And now, with the news he'd just heard, there was no getting her out of his mind at all.

"I'm not seeking trouble," he said to Fili. "I'm feeling restless is all. I want to travel a bit. I thought perhaps I'd go to Rivendell and visit the elves there, or even to the Shire to visit Bilbo."

"You aren't going to the Shire. You're going to Mirkwood to see her, aren't you?" Fili raised an eyebrow. "You forget I know you better than anyone. You're hoping to see Tauriel again. Kili, it has been years."

"I'm well aware of that. And besides, Tauriel isn't at Mirkwood," Kili said shortly, hitching his pack up on his back. "She hasn't been there in years."

"How do you know?"

"Because I saw the elves as they were leaving. One of them recognized me and was angry. He said that Tauriel was banished by King Thranduil after the battle. She was banished from her home because of me."

"Why would he banish her? She fought as bravely as anyone. We all saw it. She killed countless Orcs that day and saved us all at least once."

"But she disobeyed Thranduil by coming to Lake-town in the first place. That's all I know."

"So you're going after her. How do you plan on finding her? The world is a big place, Kili, and there are many dangers still out there. Don't do this."

"We were kept from our homeland for most of our lives. We both know how it feels."

"What do you plan to do? Go to Mirkwood and convince King Thranduil to take her back? If you try he will probably put you in his dungeon again, and Bilbo won't be there to get you out this time."

Kili chuckled. "No, I have no intention of going to Thranduil. Some of the elves may be friendlier these days, but Thranduil is not among them. I do have an idea of how to find her on my own. I have to know she is all right, Fili. I don't know what will happen then. But I have to find her."

"What does Thorin think of this plot?"

"You are the older brother, and thus Thorin's heir, not me," Kili said. "He wants to, but he said he will not stop me from making my own choices."

"I'm coming with you," Fili decided. "There are Orcs out there, and dwarf-eating spiders, hostile elves and any other manner of evil. You can't travel alone."

"I can. I have to. Don't worry about me, brother. I'll come back when I've found what I'm looking for."

Weeks later, Kili was deep into doubt about his plan. Or rather, lack of plan. He'd left Erebor with a grand idea of tracking Tauriel down. He'd imagined it would be easy, but that had been the dream of a fool. Nothing had gone as he'd imagined it would go. The elves hadn't thrown him in their dungeon when he'd passed close to Thranduil's halls—although he thought there were a few who had wanted to—but nor had they allowed him inside. They knew who he was, and it seemed many of them who were fond of Tauriel blamed him for her banishment. He had escaped Mirkwood with his neck and his freedom intact, but had come away with no new information on where Tauriel might have gone.

His plan was to continue heading west, toward Rivendell. They'd all been there once, and Elrond had welcomed them. Perhaps Tauriel had gone there, seeking sanctuary with other elves. And in the meantime, he would continue hunting Orcs. Tauriel was a warrior. He had seen her in the midst of battle, and she was mesmerizing. Her instinct to fight might lead her toward danger. He could picture her roaming the land, hunting and taking down as many Orcs as she could manage. It almost made him smile. How many times had he been accused of being reckless, and he sensed the exact same nature in Tauriel.

Darkness descended as he crept through the edge of a forest. He could hear a river running off to his right. He was tired, and decided to find a spot near the water to rest for a few hours. He broke through the trees and onto the bank, and the sea of stars twinkling to life in the darkened sky dazzled him. He took a deep breath and stood at the edge of the bank.

_"I've always thought it is a cold light," he'd said to her that long-ago day. "Remote and far away."_

_"It is memory, precious and pure. Like your promise."_

He pulled the rune stone out of his pocket as the memory washed over him. He had kept his promise to return to his mother, and now he made a new promise. He was going to find Tauriel, however long it took. He would not let himself get discouraged. He brushed his thumb over the characters etched into the smooth stone. _I will find you_, he said silently.

There was a tree near the bank, and he climbed up to settle in the crook of a thick branch. He opened his pack and took out a bundle of berries he'd picked earlier in the day. He ate them while he watched the stars, and wondered if Tauriel was watching the same sky. He liked the thought that she might be.

He became aware, after traveling for only an hour the next morning, that he was being followed. He had learned to track, and honed his fighting skills during recent years. After his injury had put his brother and all his fellow dwarves at risk before, he was determined not to let it happen again, should another battle come. He was now stronger, more agile and faster than he'd been before. His skills had served him well already, in the weeks he'd been on the road. He'd killed a dozen Orcs, and escaped many more. There were packs and smaller groups of them everywhere. The land was becoming infested, and it worried him. But what their increased numbers might mean was a problem for another time.

He turned a corner on the path he was walking and dashed behind a tree. He pulled a dagger out and gripped it, waiting. He heard nothing, but felt another presence nearby. Not an Orc then, because from what he'd seen Orcs had no sense of stealth. They relied on ferocity and brute strength.

Somebody had to move eventually, he thought, and just when he had prepared himself to do so, he heard the whoosh of an arrow slicing through the air. It landed only inches from the toe of his boot. His eyes shot up as the arrow quivered in the ground, and saw none other than Legolas melt out of the trees and come toward him.

He reached down and jerked the arrow out of the ground. "You must be losing your touch," he said. "You missed."

"If I had intended to hit you, dwarf, you would be stuck to that tree right now with that arrow through your belly."

Kili huffed out a breath, because it was very likely true. If he had gained agility and quickness in the last few years, he would still never reach the level of skill he'd seen Legolas use in battle. Not that he intended to tell the man that. The elf clearly had no love for him or his kin.

"What are you doing, wandering elvish lands alone?" Legolas asked.

"Only passing through," he said with a shrug.

"You're far from Erebor. Where are you going?"

"Nowhere that concerns you."

"I think it does. In fact, I think I can sum up in a single word what this little quest of yours is all about. Tauriel."

"Why should Tauriel concern you now?" he asked. "From what I've heard, she was banished from Mirkwood by your father years ago."

Even Legolas couldn't completely keep the reaction from showing on his face. He winced a little, tensed his jaw, but said nothing until he calmed himself. "I have known Tauriel for hundreds of years. You knew her for what? A few days? A week? Half that time you were a prisoner, the other half you were dying from a wound given to you by an Orc."

Kili seethed, ran through a dozen nasty retorts in his head, but suddenly saw a reason for Legolas's coldness. It made sense to him now. "You feel something for her. You care for her, and yet you did not stop your father from sending her away."

"There is no stopping Thranduil when he makes a decision," Legolas muttered. "He has been King since before I was born."

"You did the same thing she did," Kili accused. "I doubt you had permission to come to Lake-town that day either. And yet she is the only one who was sent away."

"What do you think is going to happen if you find her?" Legolas retorted. "Do you think you're going to have a magical reunion and convince her to go back to Erebor with you? Do you think she would be happy living in a mountain where no light shines through?"

Kili had imagined a hundred scenarios for an eventual reunion with Tauriel, and…he just didn't know. Every time he contemplated one scenario, another one would force its way into his mind. All he knew for certain was that he had to keep going until he found her.

"I don't think you know where she is either," he said. "And you have probably been searching for her a lot longer than I. Tell me this, Legolas. You believe it's hopeless for me to search for her? If your father would send her away, do you really think he would allow you to choose her as your mate?"

He did what felt like a dangerous thing then and turned his back on Legolas. He slid his dagger back into its sheath and gathered up his pack. "I will be off your lands soon," he said with a glance back over his shoulder. "What I do then will be none of your concern. If Tauriel is still alive, she is free to make her own choices now."

"Your quest will fail," Legolas called out as Kili walked away.

He didn't look back, but he did mutter under his breath, "Not if yours fails first."


End file.
